It Runs Through the Family
by Rjalker
Summary: <html><head></head>There's more to Arendelle's history than meets the eye.</html>


OKAY so (and I'm resisting the urge to type in call caps because I'm so excited) her parents were the king and queen of Arendelle before she was, and they were tyrants. They were cruel, and didn't care about anyone but themselves, and leeched off their subjects and hoarded all the money and food for themselves until the kingdom was ready to fall into ruin because people were dying left and right from starvation and sickness.

One day, a young woman named Aissa decided that she had had enough, and snuck her way into the castle to steal food so that she could give it to the people starving on the streets. Her family was better off than most, but they had already given away more than they could spare to those in need.

She managed to break into the kitchen without being caught, and proceeded to fill her pack with as much bread as she could get her hands on, aiming first for the staler pieces, so that if she _were_ caught, she could plead a lesser sentence.

Unfortunately, the guard that caught her didn't care whether the bread was stale or not, and dragged her to the dungeons to await the king and queen's punishment in the morning.

The cells were dank and dark, without any source of heat, and by the time morning rose over Arendelle, the girl was fighting hypothermia, and barely conscious.

But she was forced to kneel before the merciless rulers nonetheless, and had to plead her case through the sickness numbing her lips and muddling her thoughts. Despite her obvious ill-health, she managed to speak her story clearly, and prayed with all of her heart that the king and queen would be forgiving. "Please," She begged, when her story was over, "Please, your people are starving. The bread was going to be fed to the dogs. It would have done you no harm. _Please_."

But the queen was aghast at the mere sight of her, in her filthy clothes and tangled hair, and didn't listen to a word. The king was likewise, and sneered as the girl told her tale.

As though they had been listening only to let her waste the strength that remained in her, they announced that she would pay for her crimes with a public execution.

She was dragged outside, to the castle's square, where the trumpets announced for the surrounding town to hear that they were being summoned.

The townspeople crowded in, and were horrified to see the girl collapsed to her kneed on the ground, with guards all around her.

The king and queen stood on a balcony overhead, wanting to be there to witness the execution without having to be close to the horrified people who swarmed the square.

"This is the punishment for those who defy us!" The king called down, his voice ringing out against the stone.

One of the guards lifted his sword over his head, and prepared to bring it down across the young girl's neck.

But before he could, a woman broke past the line of guards blocking the crowd, and ran forward. It was the girl's mother, and she was desperate to save her daughter. "Please!" She cried up to the king and queen standing impassibly on the balcony, "Please, she is my only daughter! Do not kill her! All she wanted to do was help!"

"Stand aside!" The guard warned, leveling his sword at her throat, "Or you'll be next."

But the woman would not be dissuaded. "Have _mercy_." She begged, her eyes never leaving the rulers so far above, "I beg you!"

But the king and queen were too cruel to listen, and ordered the execution to continue.

The woman was restrained, and her head turned so that she would have to watch.

The guard raised his sword once more, but once again, another figure burst from the crowd to run forward.

And then another, and then another, and then another, too quickly for the guards to stop.

Before anyone knew what was happening, the entire crowd was charging forward, trampling over the guards and shoving them out of the way. Their weapons were useless in the crowd, and pandemonium quickly engulfed the square.

The king and queen, realizing that they would soon lose control of the situation entirely, called out for the trumpets to sound once more, and once silence had fallen over the crowd, the queen declared that the young woman would be forgiven of all crimes, as long as they all returned to their homes peacefully.

The crowd, its wish granted, accepted, and cleared a path for the woman to carry her daughter to safety.

The king and queen went to sleep that night, their tempers riled at the revelation of how thin their control was, but secure in the knowledge that they had avoided a complete disaster.

But they didn't know that Aissa was too far gone to save, and died during the morning hours just as the sun started to rise.

And they didn't know, either, that the woman was a powerful witch.

She had, until that moment, used her powers only to heal wounds and mend bones, but with the death of her only family, something dark awoke deep within her heart.

That morning, after the sun had risen high into the sky, and the town awakened from its uneasy, mournful, slumber, she strode down the dirt paths pocketed with mud, and stalked into the castle's courtyard, forcing the iron gates open with a flick of her wrist, and freezing any guards who tried to stop her in place.

She found the king and queen in their throne room, and forced them into silence as she strode toward them, energy crackling around her through the air, and singing the thick carpet beneath her feet.

"You will pay for your crimes." She snapped, when she stood before the cruel tyrants, "If you had listened, if you had any shred of mercy within your hearts, you would have avoided what is to come. But you couldn't listen, could you?"

And she cursed them.

Silently, her mouth moving to shape spells that went beyond hearing, she cursed them both, and, knowing that if she returned to the town, everyone she cared about would be in danger, disappeared in a swarm of ravens whose raucous cries filled the air with a terrifying storm of noise.

And then she was gone, and her hold upon the guards and rulers was released.

Though they were frightened at first, as months passed and nothing happened, they soon forgot about the woman and her curse, and continued their reign of terror over the town.

Even years later, when the queen gave birth to a daughter they named Idun, they still did not realize the consequences of their actions.

It wasn't until the child slept soundly through a hurricane that shook the windows and howled loudly enough to wake the dead that they realized that she was not normal.

She could not hear, and the king and queen were horrified.

After a day, they announced to the townspeople that she had died in her sleep from a sudden fever, and threatened the guards with pain of death should they reveal that the infant still lived.

The child grew older, surrounded by the constant hostility of her parents, who were ashamed and disgusted by her, but refused to give up in case she some-day produce suitable heirs. They refused to have more children themselves, fearful that any others would be afflicted the same way Idun was.

The kingdom managed to survive only barely, the townspeople clinging to life by a thread, kept alive only by the increased rations the king and queen had finally released so as not to cause a total uprising, and eventually, the girl grew into a young woman.

It was around this time that one of the neighboring kingdoms finally caught on to the state of Arendelle's population, and sent an ambassador bearing gifts of grain and other foods, thinking that the entire kingdom was enduring a famine.

But the diplomat was horrified to see upon being escorted into the palace that the king and queen lived in rapturous splendor while their subjects starved on the streets.

The diplomat tried to broach the subject with the rulers, but was silenced before they could even get a word out, and thrown back out the door before even an hour had passed.

Needless to say, the kingdom that had sent them was not pleased, either by their treatment or the state of Arendelle's subjects, and decided that they would have to take action if the corrupt king and queen were to be stopped.

Arendelle's army was almost nonexistent, and it only took half a day for the soldiers sent to capture the castle.

The guards loyal to the king and queen were rounded up and locked in one of the castle's larger rooms, and those that were glad to see them overthrown were set to the task of bringing all the food in the kitchens to the townspeople.

The king and queen were then escorted back to the invading kingdom, where they were tried and jailed for their crimes.

It was on the second day of the occupation that Idun was discovered, locked in her room on one of the deserted floors of the castle.

The young woman, unable to understand a word the guards were telling her, and used to the cruelty of her parents, was terrified, and could not be calmed.

It wasn't until the diplomat from before realized that she could not hear that progress was made, and eventually, they were able to figure out that she was the princess that had supposedly died years ago.

After this revelation, and the realization that the woman was nothing like her parents, the soldiers were quick to relinquish their power to her, while the diplomat explained through writing what was going on.

The soldiers stayed for a few weeks more, to help maintain order and to provide medical care for the townspeople that needed it, before returning to their kingdom, leaving only a few behind to act as guards until the townspeople could be trained to do it themselves.

But when it was time for the diplomat to leave, Idun was devastated, and demanded that they stay. She could not write herself—her hands were shrunken and disfigured, and too weak to hold a quill—but she made herself clear in the way she clutched at their arm, and begged with her eyes for them not to leave.

Eventually, the diplomat was given permission to stay, and they spent the next few months helping the young woman adjust to her new life—for she had never been around so many people, and was unused to and afraid of their attention—and teaching her what her duties around the castle would be so that she could claim her rightful place on the throne.

A year had passed before the diplomat officially asked permission to stay in Arendelle permanently, and they were granted it without question.

Another year after that, a prince from another neighboring kingdom came to visit, and it wasn't long before the young Idun and the prince were inseparable. Even without words, he seemed to understand her, and she felt comfortable with him in a way that she hadn't felt since she met her dear friend the diplomat.

The prince extended his stay, not wanting to leave her side, and it was only a short few months later that they decided to get married.

Their marriage was a happy one, and within the year, they were proud to announce that Idun was pregnant, and named the diplomat, Gerda, godmother.

Since being released from her room by the soldiers, Idun enjoyed taking walks by herself around the castle at night, allowing herself to feel free and content in the stillness that it offered. She had grown to love her friends and husband and the comfort they offered, but sometimes she just needed to get away.

Things were simpler when she was alone.

But one night, things became complicated very, very quickly when she found an injured man lying half-dead in the courtyard.

She had barely knelt down by his side to offer assistance before the world around her was shattered by a _sound_ that came like screaming metal and horror to her ears.

She awoke later to her husband carrying her back to their rooms. He'd found her lying unconscious in the courtyard, but the physician had said that she would be fine. Idun fell asleep in his arms, happy to forget the moment of madness that had interrupted her life. The man was nowhere to be found, and after a few days, Idun couldn't be sure whether it had really happened, or if she had simply dreamed it.

Nine months after that, she gave birth to her first daughter, and they named her Elsa.

And Idun's life couldn't have been more perfect.


End file.
